A housing estate in the Paris suburbs. Madjid is growing up caught between two cultures. At home, he listens to his mother's constant invective in Arabic as she attempts to make sense of her unfamiliar surroundings; at school, he tries to be part of French culture, a culture that rejects and insults Arabs. In a direct language, punctuated by moments of poetic beauty, Mehdi Charef portrays a reality only too rarely the subject of fiction. An immediate success upon publication in France in 1983, Tea in the Harem became the rallying-point for second-generation Algerians and Moroccans, who gave themselves the name 'beur': slang for 'Arab'.
- ISBN10 1852421517
- ISBN13 9781852421519
- Publish Date 1 September 1989
- Publish Status Active
- Out of Print 29 July 2021
- Publish Country GB
- Imprint Serpent's Tail
- Edition Main
- Format Paperback
- Pages 176
- Language English